The Runic Alchemist

Damian slumped into the chair, still feeling nauseated as the portal closed behind him. Nearby, Tristan stood where they had created the waygate, alongside the pugilist and a stranger built like a pro MMA fighter. The man's army uniform was stretched tight over his bulging muscles, and Damian half expected the buttons to pop off and fly in his direction.

The stranger had no mana, but his sheer emanating aura made it clear he wasn't someone to take lightly. The way he looked at Vidalia—not with fear or admiration, but with casual curiosity and a bit of anger—told Damian this was most likely Bonecrusher, someone on her level.

'Ah, he is an overpowered pugilist who can beat people to pulp, hence Bonecrusher – System did no creativity on his transcendent title, I see...'

"Lady Vidalia, you're finally back… Where—" Tristan began, but Vidalia cut him off.

"What time is it? How long were we gone?"

"It's midnight, Commander. You've been gone for six months. Where—" Tristan tried again, only to be interrupted once more.

"Six months?! Damn it… What's the situation now?"

"May I ask where you've been all this time? Where did you open that waygate from?" Tristan finally managed to finish his question.

"It doesn't matter… Tell me about Ashenvale.."

"It 'does' matter," Bonecrusher interjected, his gaze shifting between Vidalia and Damian. He stared at them both for a moment before continuing. "You vanished without a trace. Why did it take so long to return? Were you taking a break? Leaving us to fend for ourselves?" His mocking tone was edged with anger and sarcasm.

"We couldn't return. The waygate sent us to the wrong place—somewhere that made one hour of time there equal six months here."

Eyebrows raised around the room. No one seemed to believe her explanation—it sounded more like a flimsy excuse. Most of them weren't familiar with modern concepts like time dilation or had seen sci-fi movies or read fantasy novels like him, they definitely did not buy it, not that Damian gave a crap about who believed what. He didn't care, though.

Ignoring their looks, he grabbed a glass of water and drank it, hoping to settle the nausea that was finally beginning to fade. The pugilist stared at him in disbelief, but Damian just shrugged.

"That's the lousiest exc—" Bonecrusher began, but Vidalia cut him off by raising her hand, signaling that she'd had enough of their questions.

"Believe whatever you want. Now, someone tell me what happened while I was gone."

Damian glanced at Tristan, who seemed lost in thought, as if her explanation had completely shattered his understanding of the situation, the guy was a kind of researcher maybe the phenomena was intresting to him. As Tristan remained silent, the pugilist took over.

"It took Moondancer some time, but she eventually came attacking-" he explained. He recounted the events of the past six months, describing the skirmishes, the battles, and the toll they had taken on their forces concluding with, "...And that's why we really, really need you, Commander. I'm sure things will be under control now that you're back."

So they broke through huh..?

Damian knew it was just a matter of time before Ashenvale would find a way to enter Eldoris lands, with the unfair treaty prohibiting them from harming their third rankers, they would always have schemed and fought and figured out a way to send their people to do as much destruction as possible to loot as much resources as they could, the greedy nobles of Ashenvale had gathered with that one aim after all, the more ambitious ones wanted to clear a path to Pyron and take down the undefeated city by themselves, making name for themselves.

That was all to their war, just some more bullshit.

Well, he had done his part, either fighting or sneaking away he was going to leave this place if they didn't let him go. This had already gone way out of proportion to what he had thought he would be doing in a war. In his eyes he had contributed enough to earn all the rewards in that credit reward list he had.

"With Lady Vidalia and the waygate tool, we can finally put an end to this," Aramis said, looking between Vidalia and Bonecrusher.

The battle was more balanced now, with two third-rankers on each side. Even though Ashenvale had the advantage in numbers, Eldoris had high-quality transcendent seeds. Ashenvale's second-rankers, while powerful, had gained most of their strength through dungeons and duels—not the real-life and death battles Eldoris had faced while constantly fighting against the Empire.

"You've given no explanation for your disappearance," Bonecrusher said, his tone growing colder. "You took the one thing that could've saved many lives. Including that old woman… Lysandrea, was it?"

Vidalia flinched slightly at the mention of Lysandrea's name, but her face remained impassive.

"I warned you not to sign that damn treaty," Bonecrusher continued, his anger building. "Ashenvale's always been full of bastards and traitors. They've got the blood of traitors in their veins."

His aura flared, the intensity making it difficult for the second-rankers in the room to breathe. These weren't just any soldiers—they were the best of Eldoris's forces—yet even they struggled under the pressure. Damian, however, remained seated, not feeling the aura pressure at all with his mana coating his body fully and shielding him completely.

With the mana control practice he did to use the perfect ratio of elemental mana in his spells, his control over his mana had seen another growth, even better control and much more efficiency. The once tiring process to keep the mana barrier in place only barely making a strain on his mind now, he also had greater manapool than before, which also helped.

Vidalia met Bonecrusher's glare head-on. "So did I if you remember.. She did it to save us all, save us from these constant unending battles.."

"Yeah? And how many lives have you saved this past year? Oh, right—you weren't even here to see them perish for six goddamn months!"

The tension in the room thickened, the confrontation escalating, when suddenly, sirens blared outside, cutting the moment short. The camp stirred to life, soldiers scrambling to action. Bonecrusher withdrew his aura and stormed out of the room with Aramis following, Aramis bowing quickly to Vidalia before leaving. Tristan, still breathing heavily, also walked out with Vidalia close behind him.

Damian relaxed, finishing his glass of water before he got up. He slipped out the window and climbed to the top of the three-story wooden building, looking for a vantage point to see what was happening in the camp below.

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